Bristlecone Pine Genome Project Summary

We intend to generate the first genome for the world’s oldest tree species, by: (1) Generating Illumina short read and Oxford Nanopore long read data at sufficient coverage to assemble the White Mountain bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) genome, estimated at 27 Gb. (2) Assembling a hybrid (long and short read) draft genome with the optimized Masurca assembler. (3) Providing an initial gene annotation using Nanopore long read sequencing (direct cDNA) for high quality, full-length transcripts for three tissues (needle, megagametophyte, and stem). (4) Characterizing methylation profiles for the reference tree and a second, younger tree with low coverage long read data.

Great Basin Bristlecone Pine. Photo: Quinn Lowrey

Bristlecone Genome Project Team

University of California, Davis and Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation
David Neale, [email protected], [email protected]

Johns Hopkins University
Stephen Salzberg , [email protected]
Winston Timp, [email protected]
Aleksey Zimin, [email protected]

University of Connecticut
Jill Wegrzyn, jill.wegrzyn.uconn.edu

The Vaughn-Jordan Foundation  has pledged $100,000.00 for the creation and completion of the first annotated draft reference genome of the bristlecone pine.

For more information contact Dr. David Neale at [email protected] or 603-617-6813